Is Lordship Salvation a Heresy?

I don't hang around with theologians, and I haven't been to a congregational church in over 6 years, so some of these terms are new to me. However, recently, a pastor I listen to mentioned "Lordship Salvation" and said there were many in today's Christian community who oppose it. If you don't know what it is, here's a few definitions I found:

 

The doctrine of lordship salvation teaches that submitting to Christ as Lord goes hand-in-hand with trusting in Christ as Savior.

Followers of Lordship Salvation insist that a person is eternally saved not only by believing in Jesus Christ as Savior, but also by committing completely to Him as the Lord or Master of one's life.

The view that a person must accept Jesus as both Lord and Savior at the point of salvation

 

MaryLu Here: In other words, Lordship Salvation consists of not only an intellectual belief but also submitting to Jesus as Lord of one's life in obedience to His will. It involves continual repentance of sin and a daily walk with the Lord that produces fruit in a person's life as they are transformed into the image of Jesus.   

 

However, this belief has many opponents who say that Lordship salvation is a heresy that spits on the Grace of God by adding to the belief in Jesus extra things a person must do, therefore adding human works to the equation. 

 

Here's one such comment from an article online by David J. Stewart

 

The heresy is called �Lordship Salvation,� which says that in order to be saved a person must forsake sinful behavior, make full surrender to Christ, declare �Jesus as Lord� and confess Him before men. There are many variations of the heresy, but in each case human effort is added to faith in Jesus Christ. 

 

And another quote from the holytext.org

 

Lordship Salvation is the teaching that you must surrender your life to Jesus to be saved or that if you are saved you will have works to prove it. The Bible is clear to say that all we have to do is believe the gospel and the gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ as payment for all our sins. 

 

And another from a site called jesus-is-savior.com

 

LORDSHIP SALVATION is the false doctrine that a sinner MUST be willing to stop living a sinful lifestyle or to give up the sinful world to be saved. 

MaryLu Here: I actually had to stop searching for quotes. I was feeling ill and my spirit was grieved. I knew there were so-called Christians who believe you can claim faith in Jesus and then go about your life sinning and doing whatever you want and still be saved, also known as Once Saved Always Saved, but I had no idea that there were actual "Christians" who believe that you don't have to make Jesus Lord, don't have to repent or do anything at all, don't have to  even confess Him before men, in order to be saved. In fact, you can just keep on sinning and sinning! HUH? 

 

This is exactly the kind of thing that really irks me and surely must cause much sorrow to Jesus. I just do not understand how any of these people can read the Bible, I mean read the entire Bible, and still come away with such a heretical belief. Either they are hearing this crap from a pastor or teacher or they are just pulling out verses here and there and creating a doctrine out of them.

 

 Nearly Every time I open my Bible to read, it talks about submission, obedience, forsaking sin, and following Jesus. The theme of repentance and obedience is throughout the entire Bible! From Adam and Eve in the garden to Noah, Abraham, Moses, the Israelites, the prophets, all through the Psalms, the Proverbs, Job, then of course the entire New Testament and all the letters from the Apostles, concluding with Revelation where those who REFUSED TO REPENT were cast into the lake of fire. 

 

People who refute Lordship salvation say that it is adding works to salvation by faith alone, but it isn't adding works at all. Obedience to the Lord is not Works, Committing to follow Jesus is not works, repenting of one's sins is not a work!  That's insane. Works are things we try to do to earn our salvation as many other religions require such as Islam and Catholicism. Works are good things we do or rituals we perform in order to gain salvation. Things such as charity work, attending church, tithing, communion, confession, feeding the poor. All good things, but in and of themselves, they won't get you to heaven. Bowing our knee to Jesus and doing our best to obey His commands have nothing to do with works. 

Think of salvation as a marriage, which it is by Biblical definition. After you get married, is being faithful to your spouse and not cheating on them an extra work you do or is it something that is assumed by the act of making a commitment?  

 

What does the word Lord mean? a person who has authority, control, or power over others. It is someone over you in power, someone you obey. 

Does Jesus require anything from us after we get saved? Of course! Why else did Paul and the other Disciples write all those letters to the churches?  Why not just keep writing that all you need to do is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Done deal.  But what if we looked up the meaning of the word "believe". Let's take the famous verse John 3:16

For God so loved the World that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. 

The word believes here is the Greek word
pisteuō which means: to believe, to commit to, to be committed unto

When you commit to someone, you are pledging yourself to them, as in a marriage vow. You are committing your fidelity, your love. 

He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” John 14:21

 

If you obey someone's commands, they that sure sounds like they are your Lord. 

 

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; Romans 10:9

For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. Romans 14:9

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord Philippians 2:10

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.  Matthew 16:25

 

And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. Matthew 10:38

I could on and on and on with multiple Scriptures about not living a sinful life, of being constantly filled with the Holy Spirit, of confessing our sins to the Lord, of deny ourselves and offering our bodies as a sacrifice to Jesus, of how we are dead to self and flesh and alive to Jesus, how those who live according to the flesh are not true children of God. 

I challenge anyone to read the first three chapters of Revelation which are the 7 letters from JESUS to the seven churches and tell me that all one needs to do to be saved is have a mental belief that Jesus died and rose again. After that Jesus requires nothing else, that we can go on and live our lives any way we choose. 

Jesus suffered here on earth more than any man alive. Not only was he constantly hunted during his 3 year ministry, he was hated, spit on, rejected, and lied about. He had to endure heat, hunger, exhaustion, pain, filth and being surrounded by unbelief. Then, he was chained up overnight, beat, spit on, mocked, and then scourged with a whip that was embedded with sharp pieces of metal. It tore the skin from his body and dug into his muscles. The Scriptures say He was unrecognizable as a man. But that wasn't all. He then had to carry a wooden cross that has been estimated to have been over 300 pounds on a back that had no skin on it. He was stripped of his clothes, naked for all to see and then had nails driven through his wrists and his ankles. Once he was erected, his body would slowly die, his lungs would begin to collapse and he would have to try and push himself up to breathe, which of course only caused more pain. They say crucifixion is one of the most painful and slow methods of dying. And all the while He hung there, he was mocked and belittled and laughed at.

 

And at any moment, He had the power to call down a thousand angels to rescue Him and destroy His enemies. He had to only think it and it would have been done. 

 

He did that for you! He did that for me. He did that for anyone who would come to Him, repent of their sins, believe and commit to Him, trust Him for their salvation and follow Him. A FREE gift of salvation, completely unearned. A gift of grace and mercy. 

 

And you are telling me that it's perfectly okay to say "Thanks Jesus", take your gift and then go back to living life for yourself and committing all kinds of sins that Jesus died to pay for?  You think that making Him Lord, that repenting and following Him is somehow a heresy? Then you don't know Jesus, and you don't know your Bible, your whole Bible. Yes, Salvation is a free gift, but it comes at a price.   Your life is not your own. You have been bought with a huge price. 

 

For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. 1 Corinthians 6:20

Jesus is Lord! And if He is not your Lord, then you're in trouble. Everyone serves someone in this life--yourself, the devil, or Jesus. Two of them don't work out so well in the end.